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Federal Budget Deficit

Why We Need Even More Stimulus

Robert Reich | Posted 11.08.2009 | Business

Read More: Unemployed, Obama Stimulus Plan, National Debt, Unemployment, Economic Stimulus Package, Federal Budget Deficit, Unemployment Rate, Stimulus Package, Stimulus, Business News
Robert Reich

2009-11-05-reich2.jpgObama must return to Congress for more stimulus spending. Here's how he should sell it.

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The Deficit Trap

Amitai Etzioni | Posted 11.05.2009 | Business

Read More: Tax Cuts, Taxes, Obama Administration, Federal Budget Deficit, Economy, Barack Obama, Economic Crisis, Business News
Amitai Etzioni

The Obama Administration is planning to start cutting the deficit soon. Even merely to discuss tax raises, expenditure cuts, and the increases in interest rates that are entailed will slow the recovery.

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A Little Perspective on the Cost of Health Care Reform

Aaron E. Carroll | Posted 11.03.2009 | Politics

Read More: Health Care Reform, Defense Spending, Social Security, Medicare, Federal Budget Deficit, Health Care Costs, Bush Tax Cuts, Politics News
Aaron E. Carroll

People are saying that health care reform is going to break the bank. No. Health care costs are what might bankrupt us. I am all in favor of reducing those, but railing against the cost of reform while ignoring all the rest is willful ignorance.

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Downsizing the Military

Jay Mandle | Posted 11.04.2009 | Politics

Read More: Healthcare Reform, Federal Budget Deficit, Military Spending, Foreign Policy, Politics News
Jay Mandle

The next great political fight will be over a post-recession reduction in government spending in the name of narrowing the gap between government revenues and expenditures.

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Health Care Reform is Critically Important, But Getting Americans Back to Work is More So

Robert Reich | Posted 11.02.2009 | Politics

Read More: Bill Clinton, Unemployment Rate, Dick Morris, Jobs, Barack Obama, Unemployment, Economic Stimulus Package, Wall Street, Federal Budget Deficit, Stimulus Package, Health Care Reform, Financial Crisis, Jimmy Carter, Economic Recovery, Alan Greenspan, Health Care, Politics News
Robert Reich

The optimist in me says Obama can pivot off a health-care victory and launch some new initiatives that palpably and quickly spur job growth. The realist says there aren't any such initiatives.

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Krugman Is Wrong: Why China Won't Revalue

Zachary Karabell | Posted 10.23.2009 | Business

Read More: Trade Deficit, Beijing, Federal Budget Deficit, Weak Dollar, Currency, Free Trade, Paul Krugman, Timothy Geithner, China, Business News
Zachary Karabell

With China now accounting for nearly $1 trillion of American debt, the U.S. can't simply insist that it do something about its currency and expect action. Geithner has been right in not publicly calling out China.

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Grading Obama on Domestic Policy

Bob Burnett | Posted 10.23.2009 | Politics

Read More: Jobs, Democratic Congress, Obama Popularity, Federal Budget Deficit, Healthcare, Economy, Barack Obama, Politics News
Bob Burnett

It's been nine months since Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Time enough to grade the job he's done and consider...

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Divergence, of Course

Max Fraad Wolff | Posted 10.20.2009 | Business

Read More: Alabama, California, Bankruptcy, Federal Budget Deficit, Wall Street, Main Street, Fannie Mae, Foreclosure, Household Debt, Business News
Max Fraad Wolff

Despite the excitement over the stock markets, credit markets remain ground zero. They are where defaults destroy fortunes but they are also crucial to US industrial growth.

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Federal Deficit Is A Triumph Of Fiscal Policy: Stan Collender

Capital Gains and Games | Stan Collender | Posted 10.20.2009 | Politics

Read More: Federal Budget Deficit, Collender Fiscal Policy, Obama Fiscal Policy, Federal Deficit, Economic Meltdown, Federal Budget, U.S. Economy, 2009 Deficit, Collender Deficit, Fiscal Policy, Politics News

Despite the headlines and the page-one, right-hand column, above-the-fold stories in the New York Times and Washington Post on Saturday, I'm not at al...

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Bernanke: US Should Cut Budget Deficit

AP | JEANNINE AVERSA | Posted 11.02.2009 | Business

Read More: Financial Crisis, Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, Budget Deficit, Federal Budget Deficit, Fiscal Policy, Business News

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called Monday for the United States to whittle down its record-high budget deficits and for c...

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Stimulus Saved 30,000 Jobs - With $2.2 Billion In Spending

nytimes.com | MICHAEL COOPER | Posted 11.02.2009 | Business

Read More: Stimulus Spending, Jobs, Federal Budget Deficit, Federal Stimulus, recovery.gov, Fiscal Policy, Business News

Businesses that got stimulus contracts directly from the federal government reported creating or saving 30,383 jobs so far, according to data publishe...

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Good to Know: White House "Not Cool" With Trillion-Dollar Deficits

Henry Blodget | Posted 10.15.2009 | Business

Read More: Video, Federal Budget Deficit, Barack Obama, Economy, Business News
Henry Blodget

We had the White House's Christina Romer on TechTicker this week. She says the president's "not cool" with our huge deficits.

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Does Stimulus Lead to Prosperity?

Alan Schram | Posted 10.12.2009 | Business

Read More: Business News, Financial Crisis, Medicare, Social Security, Saving Money, Federal Budget Deficit, Stimulus Package, Business News
Alan Schram

The argument for a massive spending increase as economic stimulus makes the assumption that spending is the source of our prosperity. Based on that false assumption, it's easy to arrive at the wrong conclusion.

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Unhappy Fiscal New Year

Rep. Jason Chaffetz | Posted 10.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: Government, Deficit, Government Debt, Fiscal Conservatives, Federal Budget Deficit, Federal Deficit, Federal Debt, Fiscal New Year, Fiscal Crisis, Fiscal Responsibility, Politics News
Rep. Jason Chaffetz

Contrary to what some have told us in the past, deficits and debts do matter, and at the levels these debts have been accumulating, they matter a lot.

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Intolerable Cruelty: Our Sick Children's Indebted Future

Robyn O'Brien | Posted 09.30.2009 | Living

Read More: Federal Bailouts, Gas, Federal Budget Deficit, Children, Oil, Diabetes, Obesity, Health Care, Health Care Costs, Food Prices, Federal Budget, Allergies, Living News
Robyn O'Brien

In 1946, Harry Truman said, "A nation is only as healthy as its children." What have we done to ours?

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If Pearl Harbor Were Attacked Today Could We Afford to Defend Ourselves?

Paul A. London | Posted 09.29.2009 | Business

Read More: World War II, Federal Budget Deficit, Spending, Economic Crisis, Economy, Business News
Paul A. London

Many Republicans know this "deficits will kill us" stuff is bull. The country can afford to spend money to put Americans back to work, just as surely as it could afford to spend money to fight World War II.

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Progressives and the Budget Deficit

Dean Baker | Posted 09.28.2009 | Business

Read More: Health Care Reform, Deficit, Budget, Federal Budget Deficit, Economic Crisis, Housing Bubble, Business News
Dean Baker

There seems to be a bipartisan consensus that completely missing the biggest economic calamity in almost 80 years doesn't call into question your competence as an economic analyst. This should scare people.

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Obama: Confident Congress Will Pass "Good Health Care Bill"

AP | STEVEN R. HURST | Posted 09.14.2009 | Politics

Read More: Public Option, Federal Budget Deficit, Olympia Snowe, President Obama, American Medical Association, Healthcare Reform, Robert Gibbs, Healthcare Costs, Politics News

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama began a week that will dwell heavily on overhauling the health care system, declaring himself confident Cong...

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Time for Congress to Face Facts: They Are the Death Panel

David Paul | Posted 09.12.2009 | Politics

Read More: Outsourcing, Debt, Congress, Federal Budget Deficit, Death Panels, Budget, Economic Development, Exports, Sarah Palin, Health Care Reform, Jobs, Health Care, Federal Budget, Politics News
David Paul

For two decades now, we have become accustomed to justifying any manner of spending, from education to tax cuts, as an investment in our future.

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The Payoff Patriots

Vanessa Carmichael | Posted 09.12.2009 | Politics

Read More: Taxes, Federal Bailouts, Farm Bill, Federal Budget Deficit, Corn, Health Care Reform, Agribusiness, Health Care, Federal Budget, Politics News
Vanessa Carmichael

While many in the heartland fashion themselves as fiscally conservative, the reality of federal spending tells a different story.

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The Deafening Silence on Deficits

David Sirota | Posted 11.09.2009 | Politics

Read More: Federal Budget Deficit, Health Care, Blanche Lincoln, Barack Obama, Politics News
David Sirota

When it comes to aiding regular people who haven't bought members of Congress, every argument -- and especially deficits -- are cited as reasons to do nothing.

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Big Deficit, Bob Rubin, and the Strong Dollar

Dean Baker | Posted 11.08.2009 | Business

Read More: Trade Deficit, Federal Budget Deficit, Dollar, US Dollar, Robert Rubin, Business News
Dean Baker

Does Robert Rubin know that his strong dollar policy directly contradicts his fixation with low budget deficits? Either he is ignorant of the fundamentals of economics or he is dishonest.

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What Obama Won't Say: Your Taxes Are Going Up

Jill Schlesinger | Posted 11.08.2009 | Business

Read More: Federal Budget Deficit, Congressional Budget Office, Health Care, Business News
Jill Schlesinger

The former investment adviser in me says that rather than fight the concept, embrace higher taxes as a likelihood and adjust your life as much as possible.

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Rachel Maddow: Her Intelligence is Right

Joe Cirincione | Posted 10.20.2009 | Media

Read More: Iraq War, Intelligence, Saddam Hussein, Nuclear Weapons, Federal Budget Deficit, Tom Ridge, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Rachel Maddow, Jessica Mathews, Iran, Ted Kennedy, North Korea, Dick Cheney, Afghanistan War, Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, Tom Ridge Rachel Maddow, Rachel Maddow Tom Ridge, Media News
Joe Cirincione

Maddow will not let former officials dodge responsibility for launching an unnecessary war in Iraq. Why do other journalists?

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Health Care Reform and the Deficit

Josh Bivens | Posted 09.24.2009 | Politics

Read More: Health Care Reform, Federal Budget Deficit, Politics News
Josh Bivens

Another economic shoe will drop when the government announces new federal budget projections. Whatever the number is, it'll be interpreted as a reason to abandon or delay health care reform.

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